


Preferment

by SirJosephBanksFRS



Category: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-15
Updated: 2013-06-15
Packaged: 2017-12-15 02:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/844075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirJosephBanksFRS/pseuds/SirJosephBanksFRS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Jack prepares to command the squadron in <i>The Hundred Days,</i> Jack and Stephen discuss the case against two of <i>Pomone’s</i> crew for violation of Article XXIX the late afternoon after the court martial and its effect on <i>Pomone’s</i> morale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preferment

Jack stopped rowing as they were three hundred yards from the _Pomone_ and the jolly boat continued to glide for another minute. Stephen took up his finest net and started skimming the water, peering over the gunwale as he did so.

“You seemed weighed down by melancholy thoughts this afternoon, brother,” Stephen said. “Your mind is not at ease.”

“Lord, I hate a court martial. There is no satisfaction in it, ever. This case was a most queer, irregular and ugly business." Jack said, dipping his hand in the water. "It was exceptional in that it was an officer being charged with sodomy. I personally have never seen such a thing and it is almost unknown for officers to ever be so charged. One of the accused men, Lieutenant Harding, was the most junior officer, the second lieutenant on _Pomone_.  He was accused of sodomy with one of the midshipmen, an oldster. Not a young boy at all, Stephen, a twenty-two year old man who had not yet passed for lieutenant, who was up for master’s mate, a big, brawny fellow who had distinguished himself as coxswain previously and in  the engagement with the USS _President_ , in January of this year. Captain Lumley evidently had a very high opinion of him. He and this second lieutenant are only two years apart.” Jack said, somberly. “The midshipman, a Mr. Barrow, denied everything, as did Harding. The accuser was another oldster, who also has not yet passed for lieutenant, a nineteen year old. It reeks on the face of it of bad blood, of outright jealousy of some kind. The accuser is not well-liked on the ship, but he is the sole nephew of an uncle who is an Admiral of the White and a member and he was most insistent and vociferous about prosecution. He was the only actual witness. The former Captain of the _Pomone_ , Lumley, is now in hospital in Funchal with a very badly broken leg. This accusation was, in effect, a promotion for the accuser, who became master’s mate and may have seen himself ending up as second lieutenant. The damnedest thing is that I have no sense of whether the accusation was a complete fabrication or whether there was any truth to it whatever. The morale on this cursed _Pomone_ is now essentially totally destroyed, with half of the ship on the accused’s side and half on the accuser’s side, saying that Midshipman Barrow would not have been in Harding’s cabin had he been entirely innocent.” He stopped speaking and helped Stephen to half fill his bucket with seawater and to empty his net into it and then resumed.  
  
"Whilst this Midshipman Meade was the only witness to claim that he saw these men engaged in sodomy, it seems he encouraged others to claim that Harding and Barrow appeared to be particular friends, that their friendship was irregular, that their relations were improper from the perspective of an officer and a midshipman, that Harding displayed favoritism towards Barrow in general." Jack said, his face clouded with perturbation. "Friends of Barrow from the midshipmen's berth also came forward and said there was no real truth in it, that Meade had bad blood with Barrow and that this accusation was made with the intent of blackguarding Barrow as well as a form of retribution for a reprimand that Harding's complaint about Meade to the Captain had resulted in for Meade."

"How did the court ever make head or tail of it?"

"Meade was happy to provide many salacious details. He said he was sent to call Harding to the deck from his cabin and that he and Barrow were engaged and he found them _in flagrante delicto_. They were observed undressed in Harding's cabin, it is true, but this was near the line and most of the crew below deck were virtually undressed, given the extreme heat of that particular day and the fact that it had been raining torrentially and everything was wet.  Only the officer of the watch was completely dressed on the quarterdeck. They both denied everything. Meade claimed that he had seen them engaged in buggery, that Harding was buggering Barrow in Harding’s cabin. Not the typical case of paederasty on a frigate, by any means.”

"Did that seem credible to you? Were the details credible?"

"Truly, I cannot say." Jack said pensively. "I had a very good impression of Harding. He seems an upright, officer-like seaman, sober, responsible. I was not impressed with this Meade, who strikes me as a complete scrub. Barrow appears a very worthy seaman. He reminds me very much of Bonden, though an even larger man. He was a valuable crew member. He must be of admirable parts as he was promoted from the lower deck. The fact is that Captain Lumley was in a most bad way when they set him down in Funchal, which was most unfortunate for the accused men. He was not in his right mind with the pain, for surely, he would have understood that lacking his testimony was as good as giving a death sentence to Harding and Barrow, given his judgement would have been weighed extremely heavily. It was a shame he did not prepare some written remarks before his accident.”

“Perhaps this Meade was engaged in some form of blackmail. Perhaps that is how it escalated to accusing Barrow and Harding of sodomy.” Jack looked over the waves, squinting at the gulls as they dove and surfaced, dove and surfaced.

“Harding is such a fine fellow, such a wholly likable and upright fellow. Really, I cannot believe it, Stephen, that he is a sodomite. Barrow, neither, not any more than I could believe Bonden to be a sodomite.”

“Jack Aubrey, did you hear just now how absurd and unphilosophical the words that came out of your mouth were?” Stephen said with immense irritation.”What, pray tell, is a sodomite like, for all love? Given that we are both members of that fraternity, I should very much wish to know. I have known judges and barristers, generals and admirals, physicians, constables, members of Parliament and peers who were sodomites. A medical man meets all types. They had no traits in common whatever except for the commission of such acts. So tell me, what are you and I like?”

“Oh, Stephen, you understand what I am at.” Jack said, the colour rising in his face. “I do not mean such a thing at all. Harding seems completely trustworthy. Not a bit evasive whatever except that neither he nor Barrow could explain how it came to pass that they were in his cabin unclothed. That is the only thing that troubles me about the entire affair. Meade made hay out of the fact that the friendship between Barrow and Harding was irregular, because Barrow had been a foremast jack and Harding is the son of a gentleman, so what must they have in common? It sounded like simple jealousy to me, that he was offended that Harding preferred Barrow’s company to his own."

“Jack, what does it signify whether it was true or not? Surely you could not possibly ever vote to convict a man for such a “crime” when there is no evidence of force or abuse of power? Surely Midshipman Barrow would testify to any such abuse had there been any."  
  
“It mattered very much in what I said to the others.” Jack said. “It matters in what kind of an argument I made to them and how I represented anything.”

"Your Navy is a most paradoxical institution," Stephen said, leaning over the side with the net as far as he could without falling.  "So many specific rules whose violation carries a death sentence and so many offenders to whom everyone turns a blind eye."

"Speak plainly, Stephen."

"So many sodomites in high command." Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Admiral Pellew?" They had discussed Pellew the night before.

"Yes, but faith, I have run out of fingers to name them."

"Well, reasonable discretion is key.” Jack said. “That is why, I would assume, that it is completely unknown that any officer should ever be charged engaged in such relations with another officer. Surely, it does happen, not _so_ very rarely.” He said quietly, thinking of himself and Stephen.

"I should name it something different: power and influence. The powerful who engage with other powerful men are free from scrutiny. Was that Harding’s true crime, the choice of the wrong partner? No abuse of authority but abuse via impolitic tastes? Was Cornwallis discreet, Jack, when he had that lieutenant beaten from the quarterdeck for his own gratification?" Stephen said and he looked in his bucket at his specimens, pulling a strong magnifying glass from his pocket and putting a drop of the water in his watch glass to spy it. “Ah, _Guinardia_ , just as I thought!”

"I should never have told you that story, Stephen," Jack said, shaking his head. "It does make me so low when you run down the service this way. Do you count me as one of your fingers you have run out of?"

"No." Stephen said. "As you explained it to me yourself many years ago, your cabin is not a seraglio. Now that I am a seasoned mariner, I apprehend your argument fully and I flatter myself that I am in no way replaceable." Jack laughed.

"Indeed not. On my heavenly judgement day, I shall entirely blame you, Stephen, for my corruption. Had I never met you, I should never have violated Article XXIX. "Punish Stephen Maturin, not I,"  so I shall say, "I was an innocent young lad of scarcely two and thirty years and he seduced me and corrupted me and continued to corrupt me until my death.""

"I say a prayer for you every night, Jack." Stephen said.

"Do you? Well, thankee, that is handsome of you, Stephen. Lord knows I need all the prayers I can get." Jack said absently. “Especially as a Commodore.”

"Seriously, Jack, I do not understand the rhyme and reason of how one man dangles at the end of a yardarm for doing something that is virtually spoken openly about another man with seemingly no consequence. Sure, it is all power and influence, is it not?" Stephen said, looking at him keenly.

"I suppose like everything else, a man ends up judged for the sum of his parts, not the particulars. For example, Stephen, virtually every purser is a damned blackguard thief. I suppose it is possible somewhere there is one that wholly ain't, since there is such a thing as a black swan, but in general they all are. Yet 'tis exceedingly rare for one to ever be charged or turned out of the service, unless he happens to be a rapacious thief and a most unaffable, evil-tempered brute, incapable of getting along with any of the warrant officers. The accusation of sodomy is only made in the presence of other bad blood, whether it is made against a hand or an officer. For a senior officer to be so accused indicates a serious overall failure of leadership and a degradation of morale of the entire ship.”

“And a lack of power and influence.” Jack sighed.

“Well, I cannot argue with you, of course. I cannot think of one well connected officer who was ever even court martialed, let alone convicted, except for that unfortunate Henry Allen, who had the _Rattler_ , sixteen guns, on the North American station in 1797.”

“What happened to him?”

“He was executed.” Stephen’s face registered great surprise.

“Was he a post captain?”

“I do not believe so, because he was the commander of _Rattler_ which was a sloop. But he supposedly was very socially prominent.”

“And he was hanged from the yardarm?”

“Yes. Eight members of the crew testified against him: the master, the gunner, the cook, the surgeon, a ship’s boy, his steward and two seamen. He was a disgrace, Stephen. I do not believe in executing anyone for a consensual act, but to hear his crew tell it, he raped this youngster repeatedly and attempted to force multiple crew members to have relations with him. There have only been perhaps two trials of officers since the last half of the last century.” Jack said. “Though I suppose the most extreme examples where no one dared make an accusation eventually led to mutiny. This case is most unusual in that regard. It was an ugly business, a damned ugly business; two fine crewmen ruined and _Pomone_ now in tatters. Still, I suppose they are lucky to have retained their lives.”

“Conviction must surely be based entirely on circumstantial and hearsay evidence. I find it most disgraceful that a man’s life should be in the balance on the word of a spiteful shipmate. Sure, there must be a cottage industry of blackmail.”

“There is never any concrete physical evidence, Stephen? No evidence a doctor can cite definitively of penetration?”

“Upon my soul, no, my dear. Not that I should ever swear to in a court of law or before a court martial. I suppose given enough time, there is a possibility of pox in the peccant part, that is to say in the anus, but my impression is that the trials are held post haste, not in any way with enough time for such a thing to develop. I do not believe I should ever be able to testify to such a thing absent the rape of a child.”

“Have you ever seen such a thing, Stephen?” Jack said, aghast.

“Unfortunately, yes. The law is truly insufficient in such instances, but outside of large cities, the peasantry deal with such eventualities in an extra-legal manner. As you have said about a man’s reputation aboard a ship, it seems that the village opinion is seldom erroneous and the perpetrators inevitably meet with a variety of fatal accidents.” Stephen lifted another bucket and filled it. "But, Jack, do you not feel yourself a perfect hypocrite to sit in judgement of a man's life for committing the very same unnatural and detestable sin and crime that you, yourself, have committed with me hundreds of times, for ten years? Acts that you and I both wish to commit with each other until one or the other of us is in the grave?"

"I do not like it, Stephen, of course I do not, but what choice do I have?"

"You could not have moved for dismissal? You could not get them an outright acquittal?”

"I voted for acquittal, but that don’t mean acquittal necessarily. There are the other captains, Stephen; there was the testimony of that sworn witness."

"Sworn witness to what? In a dark, tiny cabin, scarcely larger than a jakes, when he clearly had to have barged in on them and they would have been forced to move apart for the door to even have been opened? Could he possibly claim that he saw the glans of the man's _membrum virile_ enter the other man's anal sphincter? He was close enough to observe it second hand? I do not believe it, not for one second. There is no medical proof that any man has ever engaged in buggery, with the exception of pox in the anus itself which is virtually impossible to detect in a living subject without the patient's cooperation. No proof of penetration means no buggery and by definition, there is no definitive proof of penetration in anyone in such a circumstance, not without the testimony of the participants." Jack sighed.

"Stephen, I should never vote to hang a man for such an offense, for consensual relations. Not if there were any way to possibly avoid it. Surely you know that. I do not like it; I loathe it. I wish there was some way that it would never be an issue in the consensual cases, that the language of Article XXIX were different. I thank God this was the first case I have ever had to hear since I was made post." Jack said, downcast.

"Now what happens on _Pomone_?"

“Tis a damned tricky matter. I do not know what shall happen. _Pomone_ is now one of the worst off ships I have ever seen, short of Corbett’s _Néréide_. Ironic, ain’t it, given she was the _Astrée_ when we was at Mauritius and she captured Corbett’s _Africaine_ off Saint-Denis, when he met with whatever unfortunate end came to him. Tis like he gave her his curse of permanent discord with his dying breath, like Apollo spitting in whose mouth was it, Stephen?”

“Cassandra.” Stephen said, looking over his spectacles at the dinoflagellates in his bucket.

“Cassandra, just so.  It is a miserable state of affairs. I wish the whole lot could be dispersed to other ships, but such is not to be since she is part of the squadron and there is no time.  No good can possibly come of it. I shall move heaven and earth tomorrow to get Meade off _Pomone_ and out of the squadron. He shall never replace Harding. Any new officer on _Pomone_ shall be a stranger to the ship. They shall be getting a new Captain forthwith, Hugh Pomfret, who is a good ‘un.This incident has destroyed the morale of the entire vessel, even her people who had absolutely nothing to do with any of it end up resentful of anyone they run across, as if their own honour has been impugned. And she is no plum to begin with, Stephen, Lord knows. Slow as a garden slug with an infernally dirty bottom.” Jack sighed. “Shall we be getting back? Are you finished?”

“I am quite finished. The question is, are you?” Stephen said, fixing him with his pale blue eyes.

“I suppose so. I told them what you said, Stephen, that there is no definitive proof of penetration without the testimony of one of the participants, and no penetration means no sodomy;  that it did not matter what that scrub claimed. They agitated for a conviction for something, hence the gross indecency. ” Jack picked up the oars and started rowing. “Pray, do let us play some music after supper, old Stephen, so I may be engaged in something pleasant tonight. I cannot wait to get back into dear _Surprise_ in the morrow."

“With all my heart, Commodore dear.” Stephen said fondly, laying his hand on Jack's on the oar and squeezing it. “The Dear knows I should like that of all things. Perhaps we shall create some harmony of our own tonight in that ship of discord, joy.” Stephen said. Jack looked up at him.

“I should be most gratified, soul.” Jack said and he rowed faster towards _Pomone_.


End file.
